


baby, it's fact

by valonqarth



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Arya, Asexual Character, Asexual Gendry, Asexual Relationship, Asexuality, Coming Out, Dialogue Heavy, Discussion of Consent Issues, F/M, Misunderstandings, POC Gendry, mentions of Pansexual Jon Snow, past Joffrey/Sansa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 03:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3594489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valonqarth/pseuds/valonqarth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So what’s he like in bed?” she asked bluntly. A few months ago Arya would have blushed, but now she simply rolled her eyes at her sister.<br/>“We don’t… we don’t really do that sort of thing.”<br/>“Arya. You’re telling me you’ve been going out with the Bull - the best hooker our school’s team ever had - and you haven’t even slept with him? C’mon Arya, pull the other one,” she said in disbelief.<br/>“Seriously. We don’t. We talked about it and we’re just… not interested.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arya and Gendry

**Author's Note:**

> There's a severe lack of ace Gendrya fic in this fandom, I had to rectify that.  
> Gendry in this fic is 19 and Arya is 17.   
> Set in the UK where age of consent is 16 btw

Arya didn't really remember when she realised she had a crush on Gendry.

It had started a while ago, Gendry coming over to the Stark house watch movies with Arya and Jon and sometimes Robb. There had been jokes and sharing of pizza between all the friends as they all argued and teased each other relentlessly. Soon enough, Robb went away to uni so their group of four became a group of three.

Arya and Gendry had found themselves becoming closer and closer as time went by, sitting together on the couch whilst Jon sprawled on the floor in front of the TV. Conversations grew longer and more familiar on movie nights where Jon soon fell asleep and the movie Jon had chosen was too artsy and boring for even him to pay attention to. Months of talking until sunrise, learning more and more about each other with every movie they ignored. He learned everything about her, that she liked shitty horror movies, the feeling of grass beneath bare feet and that she was ridiculously ticklish on the back of her neck. She, in turn, learned that he had an unashamed love of puns, loved the feeling of the sun on his back as worked under the hood of a car and absentmindedly played with the ring in his nose when he thought that nobody was looking.

One night, with the DVD menu playing on a quiet loop in the background, Gendry asked her in a low voice if he could kiss her. She nodded and allowed him to place a light kiss on her mouth.

After that they had seen each other more and more, after school and at weekends. They walked Nymeria in the park together, hands joined together and envelope in the warmth of Gendry’s hoodie pocket.

Things were happy between them for months. Arya loved falling asleep on Gendry’s couch with his fingers idly stroking her hair. Arya loved supporting him at school rugby matches and loved seeing him do the same at her fencing tournaments. Arya loved _him_.

 

One thing she had noticed about Gendry was that he never asked her to do anything. She’d grown up being told by her mother that men only ever wanted one thing from her, but Gendry had attempted to initiate anything between them. At first this made Arya feel relaxed. She’d never wanted to have sex with anyone before so she didn’t know what she’d say if he’d ask her.

It worried her, though. Gendry was older than her and more experienced. Lately he had seem subdued and pensive. Maybe, she thought, just maybe he was bored of how things were. Maybe, she continued, that was why he had been so reserved.

The thought returned to her when she was in Gendry’s flat.  Arya kissed him gently, feeling the strong weight of his hands on her waist. She could do this, she thought. It wouldn’t be difficult. This was comfortable enough for now, simple kisses.

Her hand wandered lower and lower from where it had rested on his chest. Gendry winced and drew away. Arya could see the panic in his eyes, like he hadn’t been expecting her to touch him. She felt terrible for being the one to put such a look of fear on her boyfriend. Her heart hammered in her chest. Gendry steadied his breathing and sat up onto his elbows.

 

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Arya.  I do, I fucking love you. It’s just… I can’t do _this_ ,” he said.

“Did I do something wrong?” Arya asked in a small voice and bit her lip. She had never done anything even remotely sexual before and had fretted over the slightest touch she gave him.

“Fuck, no, Arya. It’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. His face contorted into a pained expression like he always did when he was thinking hard about something. “I think there’s something wrong with _me_.”

“With you? Jon said that-” she said in confusion. Her pale skin flushed red with embarrassment.

“Jon doesn’t really know anything. I mean, I’ve had sex with girls before, but I didn’t really _like_ it but that’s what they wanted so I just kind of went with it. I lied to Jon about it afterwards to, I don’t know, seem more _normal_. I don’t want to pretend with you, Arya. I can’t lie to you about it. I totally get it if you want to break up with me -  I mean I don’t think I can give you what you-”

“I don’t.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to break up with you,” Arya said firmly, squeezing his hand.

“You don’t?” Gendry up at looked at her with confusion.

“No, you idiot. It’s just, well. I don’t think I’d really like sex either.”

“What? Then why did you try to-?”

“Because I thought you wanted to. I thought you were upset that we hadn’t done anything.”

“So you were just gonna have sex with me just because you thought it was what I wanted?”

“Uh… Yeah.”

“You were gonna have sex with me even though you didn’t want to?” he repeated in disbelief.

“Yeah…”

“Fucking hell, Arya. You should never feel like you have to do anything. I am so sorry for making you feel that way.”

“Well, would you have gone through with it if you thought I wanted to?” Her embarrassment had faded now.

“Yes,” he grimaced and rubbed a hand over his face. “I would’ve given you anything you wanted. That was why I was so… withdrawn… I just kept thinking about how I didn’t think I’d be able to make you happy.”

“Well then. We both have something to learn from this,” Arya said. She crossed her arms across her chest.

“You really don’t wanna have sex with me?”

“No… and I don’t really think I’m sorry about it.”

“Me neither. It’s strange how relieving that is.”

“You have to tell me, you know, if I do something that makes you uncomfortable. None of this pseudo-masculine bollocks about wanting to do what makes me happy, alright?”

“Agreed. And you have to tell me too. We need to talk about this,” he said. “If we don’t talk about it it will just get worse between us.”

Arya leant down slowly and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. His eyes closed.

“Is this okay?” she said.

“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “I like kissing you.”

“I do too.”

“I’m glad,” he said and lightly kissed the tip of her nose.

He pulled aside the blankets on his bed and climbed in. She followed him into the comfort and warmth and rested her head on his chest.  Gendry pulled her close to him. Her feet were cold pressed against his bare legs, but he found he didn’t mind.

“How’s this?” he said in her ear.

“Perfect,” she said and relaxed in his arms.

* * *

Two weeks later they were in Gendry’s apartment. Arya had come into his apartment complaining about how she had been asked her age when buying the DVDs for their weekly movie night  again. Gendry had been lazing in bed when she’d arrived and she’d instantly kicked off her shoes and climbed in with him.

“I’m tough. I can be terrifying,” she huffed. She pouted and flopped down onto the pillow beside him.

“Arya, you’re like 5 foot nothing. I can literally carry you one handed,” he said, choking back a laugh.

“Well I’m not terrifying to you. You clearly have impaired judgement which has ruined your common sense. I might be short, but I could still beat you in a fight,” she smirked. She leaned forwards to get a little closer.

“Is that how it is?”

“Yeah, that’s how it is.”

“Alright, Stark, bring it on,” he said, deciding to give her a challenge. He pinned her down with his weight, making sure he wasn’t actually hurting her.

“Beat me and you get to pick the first movie.”

Arya barged him playfully with her shoulder. Her speed took him by surprise but the blow did nothing. Despite her effort to displace him he remained unmoved.

“What the fuck, Waters?” she said. Gendry shrugged lightly, grinning. She raised a knee threateningly. Gendry remembered the time he had tickled her to the point where she had laughed and thrashed around. He also remembered how that had ended, with Gendry cursing as her knee slammed into his crotch.

“Well that wasn’t very ladylike, was it?” he said,

“This is the trouble,” Arya began. “I am obviously a badass, but nobody takes me seriously. You, however... it’s just not fair. There you are, said by many to be _built like a brick shithouse_ and angry like a bull. I know the truth, though.”

“What’s that then?” Gendry smiled.

“You cried at the end of Lord of the Rings.”

Gendry stopped still from where he had been attempting to keep her from wriggling free. Arya took the distraction as an opportunity and hooked a foot around his calf to trip him. Gendry accepted defeat and fell into the pillows with a thud.

“How did you know about that?”

“I’ll never tell,” she announced. To solidify her victory she sat down on his chest to pin him down.

“You cheat,” he said.

“Don’t underestimate my skill, Waters,” she scoffed. “At least this time you didn’t rip my dress.”

“Oh, please, you make me sound like some bodice tearing monster. It was an accident,” he said defensively.  “You hated that dress anyway, so really I did you a favour.”

Arya grimaced. The hideous dress had been a gift from an old family friend, embroidered with acorns. Arya had been forced to wear it to a party and by the time she’d been allowed to leave and make her way over to Gendry’s he’d already come home covered in sweat and motor oil.

“Whatever, shall we just pick the movie?” Arya said.

Gendry reached for the remote to his TV. Arya _tsk_ ed and went to snatch the controller from his hands.

“I distinctly remember you saying I get to pick the movie.”

“Did I say that? I don’t recall.” Gendry said with feigned ignorance.

“I’m calling bullshit.”

“Moo.”

“You’re literally the worst.”

“But you love me anyway?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Yeah I do, you fucking loser.”

 

Halfway through the movie, Arya realised that her boyfriend was no longer paying attention. The vampire hunters had just made a crucifix out of shotguns and it was _awesome_ and Gendry was _missing it_. His face looked pained, so she knew he was thinking about something far too much. She had been lying with her head in his lap to watch the movie and reached up to flick at the ring in his septum to grab his attention.

“Hey,” she whispered. Gendry blinked and looked down at her.

“What?”

“I can hear you thinking from here,” she said, placing a hand on his cheek.

“It’s just, can we really be the only couple in the world that would rather watch movies all night than have sex?” he said with a frown.

Arya sat up and thought about his question. “There must be other people.”

Five minutes worth of Googling later and they found it. Asexuality.

“Wow,” Arya said. “Asexuals. I like it.”

“Hmm, it’s nice, isn’t it?” Gendry said. “It’s nice to know we’re not the only ones. That we’re not alone.”

“I don’t think we ever have been,” Arya said, pulling him down for a kiss.


	2. Sansa

Arya arrived home at 10 PM exactly and tiptoed across the hall and up the stairs as quiet as a shadow. Her parents would still be out to dinner and her siblings would be going to bed by now. Sighing with relief, she made it to her bedroom door and the sanctuary within.

“So,” a voice said. Arya jumped into the air holding back a scream. Sansa was sat at the foot of Arya’s bed, smirking at her and fiddling with a cushion.

“Tell me everything,” she said, patting the space beside her on the bed. She invited Arya to sit down as if it were her own bed, not Arya’s.

Arya sighed at her sister. “About what?” She said, approaching the bed and diving onto it with a thud. The day had been exhausting and she craved the comfort of her bed to go to sleep. At least Gendry’s sister lived at uni and wasn’t constantly pestering him in his room.

“Don’t bullshit me, Arya. About the guy you’re seeing,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I know the behaviour of a girl with a massive crush so spill before I get Hot Pie to tell me. That boy will squeal and you know it.”

Arya rolled her eyes. She considered whether she should tell Sansa or not. It would be nice for someone else to know. Sure, they had never decided to keep their relationship a secret, it just didn’t really matter for people to know that their relationship had changed. They still acted the same around each other with everyone else, she thought, but just with more _feelings_. Whether she told Sansa or not, Sansa would find out. Sansa had her ways.

“Fine, but don’t tell Jon. Or Robb. Or Theon. Okay, just don’t tell anyone.”

“I swear by the Old Gods and the New,” Sansa put on her most courteous tone. Her voice dropped back to seriousness when she added, “Now tell.”

Before Arya could speak, Sansa burst out with “Shit. Woah, it’s not Hot Pie is it?”

Arya shot Sansa an incredulous look. “ _No._ ”

“Hey, cut me some slack until now I didn’t even know you liked boys, how am I supposed to know which boys you like?” Sansa shrugged.

“I had a boyfriend one time!” Arya retorted defensively.

“Arya. It was Edric Dayne. You were five. You punched him in the face when he killed your Tamagotchi.”

“Anyway,” Arya said quickly. “It’s not Hot Pie. It’s Gendry.”

“Gendry?” Sansa said. “Jon’s friend? Mya’s brother?”

“Uh, yeah,” Arya replied, trying not to think about how most of her family knew her boyfriend already. The weight on Arya’ shoulders floated away. There, it was out in the open.

Sansa leaned back on the heels of her hands in consideration.

“Well, he’s hot. I’ll give him that,” she said, nodding in approval. “But trust you to hook up with _our brother’s best friend._ ”

Sansa frowned. “You do know Jon’s gonna beat the shit out of him, right?”

“Why do you think I haven’t told anyone?” Arya hissed.

“Hold on,” Sansa said, scooting over on the bed so that Arya was near enough lying in her lap. She looked down at her, a flourish of red hair falling as a curtain around Arya. “How long have you guys been together?”

“About five months,” Arya mumbled.

“Five months? And he didn’t want you to tell anyone? You’re nothing to be ashamed of, Arya.” she whispered to her, her voice hardening towards the end.

“No, no, it’s not like that,” Arya said bringing herself to sit up.  “We both decided that it didn’t really matter if people knew or not.”

Sansa looked thoughtful for a while, her hands smoothing out the duvet cover as she thought things through. She looked up with a smirk and Arya dreaded her next question.

“So what’s he like in bed?” she asked bluntly. A few months ago Arya would have blushed, but now she simply rolled her eyes at her sister.

“We don’t… we don’t really do that sort of thing.”

“Arya. You’re telling me you’ve been going out with the Bull - the best hooker our school’s team ever had - and you haven’t even slept with him? C’mon Arya, pull the other one,” she said in disbelief.

“Seriously. We don’t. We talked about it and we’re just… not interested.”

“What, is he religious? Oh gods, he hasn’t given you some bullshit promise ring, has he? I didn’t have Gendry pegged as the _waiting ‘til marriage type_ ,” Sansa said, shaking her head and pulling Arya’s hand towards her to look if she did indeed have some kind of religious purity ring.

The younger sibling drew her hand out of her sister’s grasp and put it on Sansa’s shoulder.

“Sansa. We’re not interested. We’re not going into opposite rooms to calm down and eat a raw potato or whatever. We just don’t care about sex.”

Sansa frowned. “You don’t like sex. And neither does he?”

Arya shook her head slowly. “It’s called asexuality.”

“But how do you know you wouldn’t like sex? I mean, I’m pretty sure you’re a virgin.”

Arya sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time that evening.

“How do you know that you don’t want to have sex with Septa Mordane?”

“What? Because. Because, well I just _don’t_. Why would I want to do that?”

“It’s that simple with me and Gendry, and I’m pretty sure he feels the same way.”

“Wait,” Sansa said, holding up a hand. “So if you don’t have sex with him what do you do? I know you sleep over there all the time, Arya.”

“Sansa, just because I’m in his room doesn’t mean I have to be fucking him. Gendry is different.”

“Don’t you get bored, though?”

“Honestly, we’ be more bored if we did have sex. We play Scrabble. And… fight?”

Sansa’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“We play fight a lot. It’s fun. We’re pretty evenly matched, I mean, he’s stronger but I’m faster so…”

“Is this a euphemism or something?”

“What? Of course not. Gods, Sansa.”

“So neither of you like sex? Does he like girls at all?”

“Well yeah, just not sex with them. He likes to polish helmets and beat on exhaust pipes with hammers.”

“I’m sorry, the more you speak the more this just sounds like a euphemism for something else.”

Sansa laughed lightly and Arya lightly shoved her away. Arya buried her head in her pillow and groaned.

“Alright, alright. I get it. You don’t do anything. That’s cool, as long as you’re happy with it,”

Arya sighed. “Thank you… it means a lot.”

Sansa laughed again. “Although, do I need to give this boy the shovel talk? I mean, I’m friends with his sister, I could dig up some dirt. Not the usual shovel talk, I’ll admit, but I’ll leave that one to our brothers.”

Arya smiled. “No, no that won’t be necessary.”

Sansa beamed back and her and jumped to her feet. She smoothed down her skirt and made her way towards the door.

“Sansa,” Arya said. Her sister turned around to look at her. “It was nice. Talking to you I mean. We don’t really do it often.”

“No, we don’t, do we?” she said solemnly. “We should do it more often.”

“We should,” Arya replied.

“And Arya,” Sansa added. “I hope you know that I love you. No matter what you do, or how you are.”

Arya smiled and lowered her gaze. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”

The door clicked behind Sansa as she left and Arya’s heart felt light in her chest.

* * *

 

**23:04 From Bullhead**

get home okay?

**23:05 To Bullhead**

Yep. Safe and warm in bed. Also: Sansa seems to think that polishing helmets is a euphemism for masturbation. Thoughts?

**23:06 From Bullhead**

does she not know that im a mechanic?

**23:07 To Bullhead**

“ooh baby you really start my engine”

**23:07 From Bullhead**

i tried to think of something to top that but really i’ve got nothing

**23:08 To Bullhead**

I explained to her about us, she’s cool with it

**23:08 From Bullhead**

good im glad she gets it, i dont know if everyone will though

**23:10 To Bullhead**

She’s come a long way as she’s grown up. I remember when she was 11 when Jon came out as pansexual and she honest to gods asked if he was sexually attracted to pans

**23:11 From Bullhead**

fuck that’s brilliant i love it. i’m gonna use that one next time i see jon

**23:12 To Bullhead**

Taking jokes from a 11 year old Sansa. That’s actually terrible. Anyway, good night fuckface

**23:15 From Bullhead**

wow ‘fuckface’ this is bullying

**23:15 From Bullhead**

ha. BULLying

**23:20 From Bullhead**

ok good night

 


	3. Jon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon finds out.

Jon had been friends with Gendry for years. It was a friendship forged in the horror of school. Being the only openly queer kid and the only non-white kid in their stuck-up private school had brought Jon and Gendry together. Their friendship had been strengthened throughout the years, by bad haircuts and bad breakups. It was almost impossible to think of his life without Jon as his friend.  But it was impossible for him to imagine his life now without Arya and how happy they had made each other.

He couldn’t keep him and Arya a secret from Jon, and he definitely couldn’t keep his sexuality to himself after years of discouraging Jon from doing the same thing. He needed to tell Jon everything.

Gendry came into Jon’s room without bothering to knock. He wasn’t concerned about what he might walk in on and needed to say what he wanted to before he lost the courage.

Jon looked up in surprise when he saw Gendry enter his room with a determined look. He was idly plucking out notes on his guitar and the noise stopped abruptly.

“Hello, Jon. It is your good friend Gendry, may I please come into your room? Why of course Gendry! Thank you for asking, my lovely polite friend,” he said, to himself and picked up where he left off on his guitar.

“Jon, I need to talk to you.”

“Sure. What’s up?” Jon said, setting aside his guitar to sit up on his bed.

“You know how when you came out all those years ago you told me that you told me first because you know you could trust me not to freak out about it?”

“Yeah…”

“Well. I kind of need you to not freak out about what I’m about to tell you. Promise me you won’t freak out.”

“Of course, man. Say what you want to,” Jon said.

“I don’t think I like girls. Romantically, yes. Sexually… not really.”

“... Alright. I’m glad you felt like you could tell me that.”

“That’s not all.”

“Gen, you’re not going to tell me you fancy me, are you? I already told you, you’re not my type, mate.”

“No, I don’t fancy you, dickhead. I don’t like guys either. I’m asexual.”

“Oh,” Jon said and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, gods, you’re gonna hate me,” Gendry muttered to himself.

“Gendry, being the way you are is nothing for me to hate you for-”

“Fuck. That’s not why you’ll hate me,” Gendry said and rubbed a hand over his head, raking his fingers through his short curls. “I’m also kind of dating your sister.”

Jon stood up quickly.

“What? Since when did you fancy _Sansa_?” Jon said. The frown on his face grew deeper as he grew more confused.

“What? Sansa?” Gendry looked up in confusion too. “Arya. I love Arya.”

Gendry winced as he watched Jon’s expression change from understanding to anger.

“What?”

“Fuck, Jon, don’t kill me. I’m dating Arya,” he got out quickly. He knew if Jon tried to fight him he could probably take him, but he really didn’t want to fight with his best friend.

“You’re dating Arya,” Jon said slowly. He clenched his fists at his side.

“Yes.”

“But… you don’t want to have sex with her.”

“No,” Gendry said. He felt relief at the look on Jon’s face fading from anger to something else.

“And you came here straight away because something just happened and you just got together within the past few days.”

“Uh…”

Jon sighed. “How long?”

“Remember how we agreed we were gonna be cool about this?”

“Uh, bro, that was before I found out you’re going out with my baby sister. How long?”

“... Five months,” he said uneasily. Jon drew back his fist and slammed it into Gendry’s nose with a crunch. Gendry had been expecting the blow and manage to stay on his feet.

Jon flexed his hand and looked at it with slight disbelief as though he didn’t quite believe he’d done it.

“You should probably go,” Jon said, and added with a sigh, “I’m not mad at you, though.”

“Uh. I kind of feel like you are. I’m also pretty sure you just broke my nose.”

“I’m not mad at you for dating Arya I’m mad at you for not telling me. And I’m pretty sure I just broke my hand, asshole,” Jon said smiling.

Gendry laughed, almost forgetting that his nose was bleeding.

“Well… uh… I’m gonna go. I’ll leave you to, uh, think about it,” Gendry said, his voice strange as his nose was oozing blood. He poked at it once or twice, wincing in pain. He backed out of the room and shut the door behind him, leaving Jon standing there with a concerned look and deep in thought.

When he turned around to leave he saw Sansa waiting for him on the floor outside her bedroom door opposite Jon’s. She wordlessly handed him a wad of paper towels and inspected his nose.

“Thanks, Sansa,” he said.

“You know, you should probably go to the hospital for that,” she said with concern.

“Nah,” he said. “10 years of rugby. I’ll be fine, I’ll just set it when I get home. Broken noses are my speciality, wish the wanker had let me take my septum ring out first, though.”

He thanked Sansa once again for the support and turned to leave the house.

“I know you’ll be good to her,” Sansa called to him. “You might look like a dickhead, being built like a brick shithouse and all, but I know that you’re kind.”

Sansa remembered when she had dated Joffrey, how she’d had to watch his rugby matches. She’d sat there hoping that Joff would get his face smashed in in a bad scrum, but whilst she was there she’d noticed Gendry. He’d always been nicer to the younger players, helping them out when he could and never raising his voice at all like Joffrey did.

Gendry nodded at Sansa and made his way out the door.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this fic was a lot of Asexuality Exists PSA kind of stuff.   
> The title comes from this song which is one of my favourite songs I associate with asexuality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_S4j503V-M  
> Unfortunately, I'm aroace so sorry if the romance in this fic is really off.  
> This is my first gendrya fic despite shipping it for years, hopefully I didn't do too badly


End file.
